1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mounting of power cells or batteries remotely from an appliance powered by these cells or batteries. More particularly, the invention comprises apparatus enabling ready connection between a battery and its associated appliance. The apparatus includes an extension configured at both ends to cooperate with a battery cell, so that a conventional appliance and a battery cell may be readily connected.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Commercial, residential, and industrial buildings are frequently modified to offer functions related to safety, security and convenience. These functions may be those of convenience, providing illumination or information by appropriate lights. For example, emergency exits may be indicated by lights of characteristic, identifiable size, design, and color scheme. Clocks may be provided periodically throughout buildings for convenience of occupants. Safety and security devices may include, for example, detectors and annunciators of heat, motion, sound, products of combustion (hereinafter referred to as "smoke detectors"), carbon monoxide, specific chemical, and still others.
Increasingly, such devices are provided in forms independent of connection to the building electrical system. In many cases, they must be operable in the event of failure of electrical power, and thus are powered by batteries. This may be a matter of practicality enabling retrofitting to buildings wherein ready connection to the electrical system, is not feasible. In other cases, it is imperative that the device remain operable independently of the building electrical system Smoke detectors, for example, must be capable of operation even in the event of electrical failure. Security devices must remain operable despite attempts at disablement by intentional severance of electrical supply conductors or by similar actions.
Many protective detecting and annunciation devices must be located at the highest point of the spaces they monitor. Such locations may easily be beyond ready reach of occupants of the building. For example, in residences, high or so called "cathedral" ceilings may be present. In storage, service, and fabrication facilities, concert halls and other auditoriums, other high ceilings may be present.
When safety, security, and convenience appliances are mounted in somewhat inaccessible locations, there is a tendency to ignore requirements that the batteries be periodically monitored for power level and renewed as necessary. A great many house fires, many resulting in fatalities, have been allowed to propagate unnoticed due to ineffective smoke alarms. There remains a need for more accessible location of battery cells for such appliances, and for apparatus for testing the condition of the battery cells and their associated appliances.
One answer to this need is a suitable extension cord. Extension cords having unlike or dissimilar terminals at each end have been proposed in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,195,894, issued to Edward J. Kotski on Apr. 1, 1980, and 4,599,483, issued to Volker Khhn et al. on Jul. 8, 1986, and West German Patent Application Number 3,522,710, dated Jan. 8, 1987, all illustrate electrical extension cords having dissimilar terminals at each one end. Kotski and the German invention each illustrate a cord wherein each individual conductor has a first type of terminal at one end and an opposite or mating type of terminal at the other end, thereby enabling serial insertion into the circuit being extended. However, unlike these prior art devices, the present invention has a self-contained battery enclosure for mounting remotely from the appliance. The battery enclosure has a spool for storing excess cord length and, optionally, a press-to-test feature enabling remote testing of the appliance. In an additional option, the present invention includes an enlarged block supporting conductive terminals at one end, for physically replacing a battery in an appliance.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.